Between Us : Chapter 16: You Can’t Do This to Me

Colorful lights wandered across Xu Jue’s school uniform, and as they swayed they stripped away some of his youthful energy.

Chen Qian was being dragged along, the grip on his wrist so tight it felt like it could crush his bones, his shoulder bumping and rubbing against people who knows how many times. Yet he didn’t have the strength to shake Xu Jue off, so he could only say helplessly, “Wait up.”

Unfortunately his voice was swallowed by the crowd the moment it left his mouth. Chen Qian let Xu Jue lead him around in circles, and when he realized what was happening he nearly spat blood: “Left, go left!”

The opening song at the Milu nightclub really hadn’t been wrong. Chen Qian was being led around by the nose and still had to act as a guide, going round and round until they finally reached the exit. The glass door swung open, and the cold wind outside blew away the smell of alcohol that had clung to them inside.

With just one door separating them from the outdoors, Chen Qian finally had some peace and quiet. He pulled his hand back. “I’m speechless. Do you usually pace the girls in your class during the three thousand meter race at the sports meet? When they can’t run anymore you drag and pull them all the way to the finish line?”

Xu Jue’s mind was still full of the image of Chen Qian pressing against someone’s arm, and his anger hadn’t subsided yet. “Are you a girl?”

Chen Qian instinctively denied it. “No.”

“Then you can’t falsely accuse me,” Xu Jue said. “I’ve only ever held your hand.”

Chen Qian rolled up his sleeve a little and focused on rubbing his sore wrist, not noticing Xu Jue’s choice of words. “It’s burning like fire. Anyone would think you dined and dashed.”

“…I haven’t finished my homework. They’ll check it at tomorrow’s morning reading.” Xu Jue finally saw the ring of red marks wrapped around Chen Qian’s wrist. For a split second, what flashed through his mind was the sex toys in the bathroom cabinet, among which there was a pair of handcuffs. “Did someone bully you?!”

“You’re a thief crying thief. You did this.” Chen Qian said in annoyance, stretching out his arm and waving it under Xu Jue’s nose. “Look at what you’ve done.”

In an instant a flash of silver light caught Xu Jue’s eye. Chen Qian’s wrist was slender, and a men’s bracelet slid down to the base of his palm with the movement, just covering that pinch mark.

Xu Jue gently held Chen Qian’s wrist and pushed aside the bracelet. Under the porch light, the fair skin made the red-purple pinch mark stand out starkly, showing just how hard he had grabbed him a moment ago.

The unknown dark fire in him settled down, replaced by helplessness and guilt. Xu Jue didn’t dare act rashly again. He blew a breath of cool air onto Chen Qian’s wrist and said, “Sorry.”

The last time Xu Jue had said sorry was because he accidentally pulled off Chen Qian’s clothes. Chen Qian laughed. “So reckless.”

Standing under the porch for too long, he started feeling cold. Besides, Chen Qian was only wearing a thin shirt. He pulled down his sleeve and turned to go back inside, but Xu Jue quickly caught him. “What are you going back for?”

Afraid of hurting him again, Xu Jue hooked Chen Qian’s belt. As his fingers brushed against it, they touched Chen Qian’s lower back through a layer of thin gauze.

When he worked as a “little bee,” Chen Qian never let anyone touch him, but facing Xu Jue now he felt no resistance. It was like watching a puppy make a fuss. “My clothes and keys are all in there. You want me to go back like this?”

Xu Jue didn’t let go. Instead he pulled the person closer to his side. “I’ll get them for you.”

In a daze, Chen Qian saw some indescribable emotion on Xu Jue’s face. But then his vision went dark as a school uniform jacket was draped over him. Xu Jue seemed to have returned to his usual expression.

The fleece-lined school uniform covered his shoulders and back with someone else’s body temperature. Chen Qian grabbed the lapel, stunned for a moment, then reacted and shouted at Xu Jue, “You don’t even know where my stuff is, and you’re just charging in blindly?”

Xu Jue’s footsteps halted. He turned back at the nightclub entrance.

Chen Qian said, “Go down the rightmost corridor, B area lounge, locker 725. The password is my birthday.”

Xu Jue listened attentively. “Which day?”

Chen Qian said, “The day of Major Heat.”

One was Major Cold, the other was Major Heat.

Two completely unrelated solar terms, yet after Xu Jue turned them over and over in his mind, they somehow tasted extraordinary. His feet seemed to grow wings as he briskly turned to the corridor on the right side of the door.

The sound-absorbing carpet swallowed his footsteps. Xu Jue found the lounge, pressed the door handle and pushed it open, his gaze naturally sweeping across the spacious room.

He hadn’t expected someone to be inside. A man with heavy makeup and curly hair had his back to him, bare-bottomed and posing coquettishly. Xu Jue quickly looked away at the sign on the door. It was B area, no mistake.

“Hey, how dare you come in without knocking,” Yuan Shuang hurriedly put away his phone that he was using for selfies, pulling up the black thong that had been caught behind his knees. “Who are you? You’re not staff here, are you? Who gave you permission to barge in?”

Xu Jue didn’t want Chen Qian waiting outside too long. His mind was entirely focused on finding locker 725, but the huge floor-to-ceiling mirror was eye-catching, and his gaze inevitably brushed past it.

“That black thong of yours,” Xu Jue chose his words carefully, “is it a uniform batch for the nightclub?”

Yuan Shuang felt looked down upon. “I bought this myself! You think just anyone has the guts to wear it on stage like me? The hicks who come to Milu are here to see me. The others who cover up from head to toe don’t count for shit!”

“Oh.” Xu Jue was quite pleased to hear this. He found locker 725, entered the password, and the locker door clicked open with a soft sound.

Yuan Shuang looked over upon hearing the noise. “You’re opening Chen Qian’s locker?”

Not knowing what kind of relationship Chen Qian had with this person, Xu Jue kept his mouth shut and refused to speak. He took out the things himself, threw the keys in his pocket, and draped the rabbit fur coat over his arm.

Just as he closed the locker door and turned around, Yuan Shuang blocked his path. “I see. So he doesn’t take Mr. Jiang as true love either. How many days has Mr. Jiang been cold to him, and he’s already found his next target?”

At the words “Mr. Jiang,” Xu Jue stopped dead in his tracks, frowning as he looked at Yuan Shuang’s face.

He hadn’t looked closely just now, but at this moment Xu Jue realized this person looked familiar. Wasn’t he the one who got out of Mu Shang’s passenger seat last Friday!

As if he had stumbled upon some unspeakable secret, Xu Jue’s breath caught. Words like “true love,” “cold,” and “next target” filled his head. In an instant all sorts of questions surged up, making his heart race uncontrollably—

Was the owner of Mu Shang Mr. Jiang?

That snowy night, was Chen Qian drawing a heart for that Jiang guy?

So Chen Qian had been carrying a torch for that Jiang guy for years?

And now that bastard dared to give Chen Qian the cold shoulder?

For this piece of trash who shakes his ass everywhere?

But all these emotions were hidden beneath a calm and unruffled face. Xu Jue stroked the soft otter rabbit fur of the coat, and when he looked down at the person he appeared perfectly composed. “I see. So you were taking nude photos just now to send to someone else’s boyfriend?”

“People in this line of work actually want to find a boyfriend? Would a boyfriend let him work as a little bee? Mr. Jiang just treats him as a regular fuck buddy. When he gets tired of the flavor he’ll switch to something new!”

“People always need to try the delicacies of mountain and sea.”

Having only learned about “corpse picking up” a few days ago, this speech added several more terms that Xu Jue didn’t understand. What little bee, what regular fuck buddy, he didn’t know any of it. He only knew that his fingers dug hard into the fur, leaving several vertical scratch marks on the otter rabbit fur.

Concerned that Chen Qian was still waiting outside, Xu Jue smoothed the fur under his palm. Before leaving he swept a contemptuous glance over Yuan Shuang’s legs wrapped in fishnet stockings. “I don’t know about delicacies of mountain and sea, but right now you’re pretty much no different from ocean trash. Waste recycling still depends on you.”

On the way there he had been secretly happy about a pair of matching dates. On the way back he was silent with a belly full of worries. When he reached the door, Xu Jue handed the coat to Chen Qian and opened the umbrella without a word.

Chen Qian still had the leisure to catch the raindrops falling from the umbrella edge. “Didn’t you say it was raining heavily? There’s not even a puddle on the ground.”

Xu Jue stopped at the bus stop. “The city drainage system is well-developed.”

“If it were really raining hard, you wouldn’t have only brought one umbrella when you went out.” Chen Qian turned around. “I think you’re just…”

Xu Jue gripped the umbrella handle tight. “Just what?”

Chen Qian looked at him for a long moment, then smiled. “You’re just afraid of the dark. When you went out you must have been scrambling in a panic, not caring about anything.”

Xu Jue’s fluctuating mood was like the raindrops hanging precariously from the umbrella ribs. “…You’re right.”

“The circuits in Liuxiang are all like this. The wiring is old. A thunderstorm or rain and they trip easily.” The bus came, and Chen Qian pushed Xu Jue onto it. “You should have told me earlier you were afraid of the dark. There’s a night light in the study cabinet. Turn it on if you can’t sleep at night.”

There were actually quite a lot of people getting on at the Wandengli stop. There were two empty seats in the back row. Xu Jue held the railing and let Chen Qian, who got on after him, sit in the window seat first, then sat down next to him.

“The night light might need charging. The charging cable is in…”

“Is the lounge only for Milu employees?” Xu Jue interrupted him.

Chen Qian was silent for a moment. “Yes.”

Xu Jue took a deep breath, his nostrils filled with the smell of alcohol. It seemed like he hadn’t smelled that mix of oak and morning dew fragrance on Chen Qian for quite a while. “I just ran into a guy in the lounge. He was dressed a bit strangely.”

There was only one person with such a distinctive style in the B area lounge. Chen Qian thought of Yuan Shuang’s outfit tonight and got the urge to tease Xu Jue. “Did you think it looked good?”

From Chen Qian’s tone, he didn’t seem to be rejecting it. Xu Jue steeled himself. “Are the lounges assigned by job type?”

“Of course not,” Chen Qian was about to explain, but his words paused, and he suddenly understood something. “Dummy, you think I do that kind of work?”

Finally getting to the point, Xu Jue turned his face.

A night rain had made the city lights look like stars smeared on the window glass, which then slipped into Chen Qian’s eyes. The shifting light and shadow floated across his face. Some expressions Xu Jue couldn’t make out clearly, but he wanted to understand.

“He’s the one who dances on the pole on stage. I don’t do that,” Chen Qian said. “I work as a…”

The words “little bee” were stuck in his throat. Chen Qian changed course. “Forget it, you wouldn’t understand.”

Xu Jue hated hearing this the most. “Then I’ll Baidu it.”

“Go ahead and Baidu.”

“Water boils at one hundred degrees, people die when they Baidu,” Xu Jue said. “You can’t do this to me.”

“I’m just a wine seller!” Chen Qian slapped Xu Jue’s thigh to shut him up, accidentally brushing against the back of Xu Jue’s hand. “Why is your hand so cold? I’d better take off the school uniform and give it back to you.”

“No need, don’t take it off.” Xu Jue’s original purpose was to cover up that semi-transparent thin shirt Chen Qian was wearing underneath. Seeing Chen Qian about to take it off, he didn’t think much and reached out to pull the two lapels together

Something lightly scraped across the base of his thumb. He looked down by the moonlight, and his gaze focused on the collar tips of Chen Qian’s shirt, on those two round pearls.

He saw clearly what was right next to the pearls.

And he remembered that sticky, clinging phrase from the phone call: “eating pearls.”

His hand loosened. Xu Jue turned his head away and warned in a fierce voice: “Just sell your wine. From now on wear this shirt less often!”

Translation Notes:

Corpse picking up” (捡尸): A slang term referring to taking advantage of extremely intoxicated people (often at clubs or bars), typically for sexual purposes. The “corpse” refers to someone so drunk they’re passed out or barely conscious.

“Little bee” (小蜜蜂):A slang term in Chinese nightclub/bar culture for young attractive staff (usually male or female) who are hired to socialize with guests, encourage them to buy drinks, and create a lively atmosphere. They’re essentially paid party companions or promotional staff, not sex workers, though the line can sometimes blur in certain venues. The English equivalent might be “bar host” or “club promoter,” but the Chinese term carries a specific connotation of being cute and buzzy like a bee.

“Water boils at one hundred degrees, people die when they Baidu”: A popular Chinese internet joke/meme. “Baidu” is China’s largest search engine, and the saying mocks how self-diagnosing medical symptoms online (via Baidu) leads people to believe they have fatal diseases. It’s a play on words: “one hundred degrees” (百度) is both the boiling point of water and the name of the search engine. The joke warns against looking things up online because you’ll only scare yourself.